On September 25, 2026, HUD published a notice in the Federal Register that most landlord blogs will skip: the plan for the 2027 Rental Housing Finance Survey (RHFS). It’s the only federal survey that asks rental owners directly about their mortgages, expenses and management, and in 2027 it adds evictions and disaster repair costs.

Owners of one-to-four-unit rentals should care for two reasons. You might get the survey. And the last round, the 2024 survey released as microdata in February 2026, is the best public benchmark for how owners like you actually run their properties.

What the notice says (fact)

• Who gets asked: “Owners and managers of rental properties.” HUD estimates 10,000 respondents at about one hour each. The survey runs once every three years (91 FR 60978, FR Doc. 2026-19651).
• What’s new for 2027: questions on the types of rental properties owned by people with several properties, new categories of maintenance, repair and capital-improvement costs “including costs associated with natural disasters,” and “data on evictions and the eviction process.”
• What stays the same: property value, rents and vacancy, who manages the property, who owns it, a detailed mortgage section, and government benefits received.
• Comment deadline: November 24, 2026, through regulations.gov (OMB Control No. 2528-0276). HUD specifically asks whether the burden estimate is accurate and how to reduce it.

The misconception: “A government letter asking about my mortgage is a scam, or else I have to answer it”

Neither is automatically true. The Census Bureau runs the survey for HUD, and its 2024 methodology statement lists the type of request as “Voluntary.” Sampled owners get a letter inviting them to answer online through the Census Bureau Respondent Portal with an authentication code. Field staff follow up with owners who don’t respond or couldn’t be reached by mail. The Bureau’s respondent information page says any web address in the letter should be on a census.gov domain, and any email about the survey will come from a census.gov address.

Interpretation, not fact: for an absentee owner, the practical risk is a letter landing at the property and being handled by a tenant or manager. The survey asks who manages the property and gives the manager’s contact details. So tell your property manager in advance how you want survey mail forwarded, rather than letting someone else answer questions about your financing.

What the 2024 survey says about small rentals

We tabulated the Census Bureau’s 2024 RHFS public-use file (version 1.0, released February 19, 2026) using the official property weights. The reference year is calendar 2023. The file covers about 19.0 million rental properties, and about 18.5 million of them have one to four units. These are survey estimates, not a census. Our 90% margins of error, calculated from the file’s replicate weights, run from about ±2 to ±8 percentage points depending on the item, so read them as rounded figures.

• Ownership: about 65% of 1-4 unit rental properties are owned by individual investors (including couples), and about 22% by an LLC, LP or LLP. HUD’s 2021 release put individual ownership of small rentals at 70%. We don’t claim a statistically significant shift.
• Management: about 57% are managed day to day by the owner or an unpaid family member. About 22% use a management company and about 15% use a manager the owner employs directly.
• Debt: only about 37% carry a mortgage or similar debt. Most small rentals are owned free and clear.
• Scale: about 55% of owners of small rentals own at least one other property. Among those, roughly three in four own 1-10 others.
• Vouchers: only about 7.5% said yes when asked if they accept HUD vouchers. Another 14% said “don’t know.”
• Single-family benchmarks (median per property, 2023, among owners reporting a non-zero amount): insurance about $1,200, maintenance and repairs about $2,000, estimated market value about $250,000. These medians come from roughly 140-340 sampled single-unit properties, so treat them as rough.

What this means for an out-of-state owner (interpretation, not fact)

1. You’re the typical landlord, not an outlier. Most US rental properties are single-family homes owned by individuals, and most are self-managed. The new eviction and disaster-cost questions are the data HUD will use in future policy debates that affect owners like you.

2. The disaster-cost questions reward owners who keep records. If you can’t separate storm or flood repairs from routine maintenance in your books, you’ll struggle to answer the 2027 survey. That same separation also matters for insurance claims, casualty-loss documentation and flood-map decisions. Ask your manager to code disaster-related work orders separately starting now.

3. The benchmarks are a sanity check, not a target. If your single-family insurance bill is several times the $1,200 median, the reason may be location (coastal, wildfire or flood exposure) rather than a bad policy. But it’s worth a second quote. A repair spend well below $2,000 a year on an older house can mean deferred maintenance rather than efficiency.

4. You can comment. If a one-hour burden estimate or the eviction questions seem unrealistic for someone managing from another state, the notice explicitly asks for that feedback before November 24.

A five-step checklist

1. Tell your property manager to forward any Census Bureau or HUD survey mail to you, not answer it on your behalf.
2. Verify any survey letter or email by checking that it points to a census.gov address before you enter anything.
3. Split your 2026 expense ledger into routine repairs, capital improvements and disaster-related costs.
4. Compare your insurance and repair spend per property with the benchmarks above, and re-quote insurance if you’re far above them.
5. If you want a say in how evictions and disaster costs are measured, submit a comment on OMB Control No. 2528-0276 by November 24, 2026.

Related guides: how to manage out-of-state real estate by yourself, how to hire a property management company, federal reporting rules for LLC-owned rentals, and whether out-of-state investing is right for you.

Sources: HUD, 60-Day Notice: 2027 Rental Housing Finance Survey, 91 FR 60978 (Sept. 25, 2026); Census Bureau, 2024 RHFS Public Use File and codebook; 2024 RHFS methodology; RHFS information for respondents; HUD/Census 2021 RHFS release. The percentages and medians in this article are Remote Real Estate’s own tabulations of the public-use file, not figures published by HUD or the Census Bureau.

This article is for general educational purposes only and is not legal, tax, lending, insurance or investment advice. Survey procedures and federal rules can change; check the primary sources and consult qualified professionals about your own situation.

On September 24, 2026, HUD published a two-page notice with an unusual message: its civil money penalties will not rise for inflation this year. The Justice Department and the FTC had already said the same. For an out-of-state landlord, that means the fines behind the two federal rules most likely to catch a small, remote owner, fair housing and lead-based paint disclosure, stay at their 2025 levels for all of 2026.

What happened (fact)

The Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015 requires agencies to raise civil penalty caps every year. The raise is based on the change in the October Consumer Price Index (CPI-U). Because of the 2025 government shutdown, the Bureau of Labor Statistics never produced October 2025 CPI data. On April 17, 2026, OMB told agencies in Memorandum M-26-11 that there would be no 2026 adjustment and that they should “continue using the 2025 civil monetary penalty levels.”

The agencies that matter to landlords have now said so in the Federal Register:

• HUD, 91 FR 60637 (September 24, 2026): “all HUD civil money penalties are maintained at their 2025 level.”
• DOJ, 91 FR 43405 (July 15, 2026): no adjustments in 2026, with a “thorough review” planned for 2027.
• FTC, 91 FR 58446 (September 15, 2026): 2025 levels continue through 2026.

The numbers that apply to a rental owner

These are the maximums printed in the Code of Federal Regulations today (eCFR, current through September 22, 2026):

These are penalties paid to the government. They come on top of what a tenant can recover. The lead disclosure statute, 42 U.S.C. 4852d(b)(3), makes a landlord who knowingly violates it liable to the tenant for three times their damages, plus attorney fees. The Fair Housing Act separately allows actual and punitive damages.

The misconception: “I only own a couple of houses, so fair housing law doesn’t apply to me”

The Fair Housing Act does have a small-owner exemption at 42 U.S.C. 3603(b)(1), for a private individual who owns no more than three single-family houses. It is much narrower than most people think, and remote owners usually lose it:

• It applies only if the house is rented without “the sales or rental services of any real estate broker, agent, or salesman” or anyone else in the business of renting dwellings. Hire a property manager or leasing agent, as almost every out-of-state owner does, and the exemption is gone.
• It never covers discriminatory advertising. Section 3604(c) is expressly carved out, so the wording of a listing is covered even when the rest of the transaction is exempt.

Timing matters too. A person can file a complaint with HUD up to one year after the practice occurred or ended, and can sue privately up to two years after.

How the penalty is counted

For HUD fair housing cases, the cap applies per “separate and distinct discriminatory housing practice.” Under 24 CFR 180.671(b), that is a single, continuous transaction. It counts once even if it breaks several provisions or affects several people. However, 180.671(e) lets a judge assess a separate penalty against each respondent, so an owner and the owner’s management company can each be fined.

The lead disclosure rule applies to leases of “target housing” (generally pre-1978). Exceptions under 40 CFR 745.101 include leases of 100 days or less with no renewal possible and units certified lead-based-paint free. A renewal is exempt only if you already made the full disclosure and no new information has come into your possession. A new risk assessment or dust-wipe report counts as new information. Landlords and their agents must keep the signed disclosure for at least three years from the start of the lease (40 CFR 745.113(c)).

What this means for you (interpretation, not fact)

• The freeze is not a discount. Keeping a cap at $26,262 instead of raising it by a few hundred dollars changes nothing about your exposure. It does give you stable numbers for reviewing indemnity clauses and insurance limits.
• 2027 is an open question. Next year’s adjustment normally compares October 2026 CPI with October 2025 CPI, and the October 2025 figure does not exist. DOJ says only that it will review the issue in 2027. Do not assume any particular 2027 figure until the agencies publish one.
• Your agent’s mistakes are your exposure. Both regimes reach the owner as well as the agent. For a remote owner, the practical control point is the management agreement and the listing copy, not the statute.

A five-step check for this quarter

1. Pull every active and recent listing your manager ran for your units and read the wording yourself. Watch for phrases about family status, age, disability, or source of income where state or local law covers it.
2. Confirm that your property management agreement requires fair housing training and compliance, and see who indemnifies whom.
3. For every pre-1978 unit, ask your manager for the signed lead disclosure on each current lease and confirm that copies are kept for three years.
4. If you received any new lead report this year (for example, from an HCV inspection), re-disclose at the next renewal. Do not rely on the renewal exemption.
5. Put the current caps in your files next to your insurance declarations page, and check again when the 2027 figures are announced.

Related reading: how to manage out-of-state real estate by yourself, the DOJ’s rent-pricing software filings, the federal 30-day notice to vacate that is still in force, and whether out-of-state investing is right for you.

This article is for general educational purposes only and is not legal, tax, financial, lending, or investment advice. Penalty amounts are statutory maximums as published at the time of writing; actual penalties depend on the facts of each case. Consult a qualified attorney about your specific situation.

If you own a rental built before 1978, the federal definition of a “dust-lead hazard” no longer has a number attached to it. Since January 12, 2026, a hazard under EPA’s rules is any amount of lead in floor or window-sill dust that an accredited lab can report. States that run their own lead programs have until January 11, 2027 to show EPA they have caught up. The rule doesn’t order anyone to test. It changes what your paperwork says, what you hand to your next tenant, and how fast you must act for a voucher household with a young child.

What changed (fact)

• The hazard threshold is now “any reportable level.” EPA’s final rule of November 12, 2024 replaced the old dust-lead hazard standards (10 µg/ft² for floors, 100 µg/ft² for interior sills) with any level an NLLAP-recognized lab reports. The current text of 40 CFR 745.65(b) uses the old numbers “before January 12, 2026” and “any reportable level” on or after that date. (EPA final rule, 89 FR 89416)
• Post-abatement clearance got much stricter. After an abatement, dust has to test below new “action levels”: 5 µg/ft² on floors, 40 on window sills and 100 on window troughs. Both changes took effect on January 12, 2026.
• States get until January 11, 2027. States authorized to run their own program must show EPA they meet the new requirements by that date. Oregon, for example, proposed adopting them in August 2026. When the rule was published, EPA itself ran the program in Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, South Carolina, South Dakota and Wyoming, among others.
• Studios can now be covered. EPA’s disclosure-rule definition of target housing (40 CFR 745.103) now covers a pre-1978 0-bedroom unit (studios, efficiencies and single-room rentals) if a child under 6 lives there or is expected to.
• HUD’s lead rule points to EPA’s number. HUD’s Lead Safe Housing Rule defines a dust-lead hazard as a loading at or above “the levels promulgated by the EPA at 40 CFR 745.65” (24 CFR 35.110). HUD also lowered its elevated blood lead level trigger for children under 6 from 5 to 3.5 µg/dL. A joint HUD notice dated February 27, 2026 says that threshold is enforced from June 1, 2026, including for Housing Choice Voucher owners.

The misconception: “EPA now makes landlords test for lead”

It doesn’t. EPA says plainly that its lead-based paint rules “do not compel property owners or occupants to evaluate their property” or to take control actions. The disclosure rule adds that nothing in it “implies a positive obligation on the seller or lessor to conduct any evaluation or reduction activities” (40 CFR 745.107). The Renovation, Repair and Painting (RRP) rule is also unchanged. Its work practices apply wherever lead paint is present or assumed, and they don’t depend on dust test results.

The lower threshold matters in three real situations.

1. Your lead disclosure now carries more weight

Before a tenant is bound by a lease on pre-1978 housing, you must give them the EPA pamphlet, disclose any known lead-based paint or hazards, and hand over “any records or reports available” to you (40 CFR 745.107(a)(4)). EPA explains that this already covered risk-assessment results whether they were above or below the old standards. So the new rule doesn’t create new disclosures. It means more of them will say a hazard is present. A 2019 risk assessment that found 6 µg/ft² on a kitchen floor was “below hazard” under the old standard. Measured today, the same result would be a hazard.

EPA is renewing the paperwork approval for disclosure (nearly 40 million estimated respondents; comments close September 28, 2026, EPA ICR 1710.10). The duty itself is unchanged.

2. A voucher tenant’s child tests at 3.5 µg/dL

For units rented to Housing Choice Voucher families, 24 CFR 35.1225 sets the timeline once the housing agency is notified that a child under 6 has an elevated blood lead level. The agency must complete an environmental investigation within 15 days. The owner then has 30 days to reduce the hazards it identifies, and the job is done only when clearance is achieved. Because HUD’s hazard definition follows EPA’s, a dust wipe with any reportable lead can now be flagged as a hazard. HUD’s 3.5 µg/dL trigger will also bring more children into the process than the old 5 µg/dL trigger did.

3. You pay for an abatement

If you hire a certified firm to permanently abate lead hazards, for example to get a unit certified lead-free, the job now has to clear to 5/40/100 µg/ft². Budget for extra cleaning and possibly repeat dust testing.

What this means for an absentee owner (interpretation, not fact)

The main exposure is old reports, not new tests. A report that said “no dust-lead hazard” in 2021 still has to be disclosed, but it no longer tells a new tenant the unit is clean. EPA itself warns that a report “should not imply the absence of those conditions in perpetuity.” A certified lead-based paint-free inspection is different: EPA confirms that certifications issued before or after the rule still exempt the lease from disclosure. For older units you plan to hold for a long time, that certificate may now be worth more.

The second exposure is speed. On a voucher unit with a young child, the 30-day clock can start while you’re 1,500 miles away. How fast your local manager can line up a certified contractor now matters.

Checklist for pre-1978 rentals

1. List every unit built before 1978, including studios that could house a child under 6.
2. Gather every lead inspection, risk assessment and clearance report you have. Those are what you must disclose, whatever the numbers show.
3. Check that your lease packet includes the current EPA pamphlet and a signed disclosure form. Keep signed copies for at least three years, as the rule requires.
4. Confirm that anyone disturbing painted surfaces in those units is RRP-certified. The new standard doesn’t change that.
5. For voucher units, agree in writing with your manager on who responds, and how fast, if the housing agency reports an elevated blood lead level.
6. If your state runs its own lead program, check whether it has adopted the new standards before its January 11, 2027 reporting deadline.

Related reading: How to hire a property management company, managing an out-of-state rental yourself, the new Section 8 inspection standards, and whether out-of-state investing fits you.

This article is for general educational purposes only. It is not legal, tax, financial, environmental or investment advice. Lead-based paint rules vary by state and locality. Consult a qualified professional and your state or local lead program about your specific property.

On September 18, 2026, the Department of Energy published a short notice in the Federal Register with an unusual title: “Notification of legal effect.” Its message was that DOE’s energy conservation standards for manufactured housing — the rule published on May 31, 2022 at 87 FR 32728 and still printed in the Code of Federal Regulations at 10 CFR part 460 — now have no legal effect, and DOE will not enforce them.

If you own or are shopping for a manufactured-home rental in another state, the headline and the practical consequence here are not the same thing. Below: what changed, what never applied to you, and the 2027 date that matters more.

The fact: a statute overrode the rule

The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act (Public Law 119-101) was enacted on July 11, 2026. Section 301(d)(2)(B) says that no energy efficiency standards for manufactured homes developed by any federal agency have legal effect unless and until HUD adopts them through the consensus standards process in 42 U.S.C. 5403(a)(2). Section 301(d)(2)(C) then requires HUD to adopt minimum energy efficiency standards for manufactured homes within one year of enactment, and to update them every three years.

HUD has not adopted those standards yet. DOE’s notice records the consequence: because HUD has not acted, DOE’s 2022 standards carry no legal force, and DOE says it will open a rulemaking to conform its own regulations.

The part most coverage gets wrong

You will see this framed as “energy rules for manufactured homes repealed.” For a small landlord, the more accurate framing is that those standards never reached you. Read 10 CFR 460.1 as it stands today. Tier 1 homes (single-section) must comply if manufactured on or after 60 days after DOE publishes final enforcement procedures; Tier 2 homes (multi-section) on or after 180 days after that publication. DOE never published final enforcement procedures. It had originally set a July 1, 2025 compliance date for Tier 2 homes and then delayed it in a final rule at 90 FR 28873 (July 2, 2025), replacing the fixed date with the same enforcement-procedure trigger. So no manufactured home was ever required to be built to 10 CFR part 460.

Two limits also matter. The standards applied to homes as manufactured at the factory, before distribution in commerce — never to a home already on your lot, and never to your rehab work. And they covered HUD-Code manufactured homes, not modular or site-built rentals. Interpretation, not fact: if a seller or contractor has told you that a federal energy rule forces an insulation or window upgrade on an existing manufactured rental, that claim did not have a legal basis before September 18 either.

What replaces it, and when

HUD’s deadline to adopt minimum energy efficiency standards runs one year from July 11, 2026, through the Manufactured Housing Consensus Committee process, with updates every three years. Interpretation, not fact: a consensus standard that manufacturers help write will probably sit closer to current building practice than DOE’s 2021-IECC-based tables in 10 CFR 460.102 — but nothing is decided, and the three-year cycle means new-home specifications keep moving.

The change that matters more: chassis, titling, and your state

The same law rewrote the federal definition of “manufactured home” in 42 U.S.C. 5402(6), striking “on a permanent chassis” and inserting “with or without a permanent chassis.” HUD’s implementing piece is still a proposal: “Revising the Definition of ‘Manufactured Home’ to Lower Housing Costs” (91 FR 35632, June 12, 2026, comments closed August 11, 2026). It would let upper-floor sections be built and shipped without a chassis, keep the chassis on the lowest floor, move the serial-number plate to the foremost floor joist, and align 24 CFR 201.2 so those homes stay eligible for Title I loans. It is a proposal, not law.

The provision to watch is the state certification requirement the ROAD Act added at 42 U.S.C. 5403(i). Within one year of enactment, each state must certify to HUD that its laws treat a chassis-free manufactured home the same as one built on a chassis — including for financing, title, insurance, sale, taxes, transportation, and installation. States with biennial legislatures get two years, certifications renew annually, and HUD must publish a list of up-to-date states. If a state misses its deadline, the consequence runs the opposite way from what you might expect: that state must prohibit the manufacture, installation, or sale of a chassis-free covered manufactured home.

Interpretation, not fact: for an absentee owner, the real risk over the next two years is not energy specifications. It is buying a newer chassis-free home in a state that has not aligned its titling, lending, and insurance treatment — the three places manufactured-home deals usually go sideways for out-of-state buyers.

A short checklist

1. If a quote, inspection report, or seller disclosure cites 10 CFR part 460 or the 2022 DOE standards as a requirement, treat it as out of date and ask for the current legal basis.
2. For any manufactured home built after July 11, 2026, ask in writing whether every transportable section is on a permanent chassis, and confirm how the home is titled in that state.
3. Before you buy out of state, check HUD’s published list of certified states once it exists, and ask your title company and insurer how they treat a chassis-free upper section.
4. Ask your lender whether the home qualifies under 24 CFR part 201 (Title I) or a conventional program, and get the answer before you waive diligence.
5. Diary July 11, 2027 for both the HUD energy standard and the state certification deadline, and expect a new energy standard every three years after that.
6. Photograph the HUD data plate and label for your property file — that is how the home’s classification gets proven.

If you are weighing whether manufactured housing belongs in a remote portfolio, our primers on whether out-of-state investing fits you, self-managing a distant property, and hiring a property manager cover the operating side. Two other recent federal changes that touch the same purchase decision: the institutional-buyer restrictions in the same ROAD to Housing Act and what a FEMA flood map revision does to a leveraged rental.

This article is educational information for property owners, not legal, tax, lending, or investment advice. Federal rules, proposed rules, and state certifications change; verify current requirements with the primary sources linked above and with licensed professionals in the state where your property is located before making decisions.

If you own a rental in another state and someone else sets the rent — a property manager, a revenue-management tool, or a spreadsheet fed by “what the comps are getting” — two documents published this summer and last Friday should change how you ask about it.

On September 18, 2026, the Justice Department published a proposed consent decree against Pinnacle Property Management Services in the Federal Register (91 FR 59304, FR Doc. 2026-19100). It is the latest settlement in United States et al. v. RealPage, Inc., No. 1:24-cv-00710 (M.D.N.C.). And on July 20, 2026, New Jersey’s governor signed the Forbidding the Algorithmic Inflation of Rent (FAIR) Act, S451 (2R), which takes a version of the same rule and applies it to a landlord who owns one unit.

What the federal case actually says

The DOJ complaint, filed August 23, 2024 and amended January 7, 2025 to add six property-management companies, alleges a Sherman Act section 1 violation: landlords fed RealPage daily nonpublic leasing data — executed rents, renewals, lease terms — and RealPage used that pooled data to recommend prices back to competing landlords in the same market.

The Pinnacle decree, filed September 4, 2026, is narrow but specific. Beginning 180 days after entry of the stipulation, Pinnacle may not license or use any revenue-management product that (1) uses other landlords’ nonpublic data in its runtime operation, (2) pools data across properties with different owners, (3) discloses its properties’ nonpublic data to a rival manager or owner, or (4) runs a pricing model that was trained on other landlords’ nonpublic data. It also may not use a product with a built-in rent floor or a cap on recommended decreases, or one that pays it to accept recommendations. Separately, it may not solicit or use competitors’ nonpublic numbers by any route at all — the decree names call-arounds, market surveys, user groups, texts, shared spreadsheets and Google Docs. The judgment runs five years from entry, with early termination possible after three.

Two things the decree does not do. It does not ban pricing software. The decree’s own definition of “public data” — asking rents, concessions, amenities, availability that anyone can see on a listing site, a website, or by asking as a prospective renter — stays fair game. And it does not cover your house. “Defendant Property” means conventional multifamily; the complaint defines that market as buildings with five or more units, excluding student, affordable, age-restricted, senior, and military housing.

Status matters too. As of today, the Justice Department’s case page shows only one entered final judgment (Greystar, March 2, 2026). The RealPage, Cortland, LivCor, Willow Bridge, and Pinnacle judgments are proposed, each paired with a stipulation requiring compliance in the meantime. Public comment on the Pinnacle decree is open for 60 days from the September 18 notice — roughly November 17, 2026 — under the Tunney Act, 15 U.S.C. 16(b)–(h).

New Jersey drew a much wider circle

The FAIR Act is not limited to five-unit-plus buildings. It defines “rental property owner” as a person who owns, directly or indirectly, one or more rental residential dwelling units, and it reaches “any agent, representative, or subcontractor” of that owner. It makes it a violation of the New Jersey Antitrust Act for an owner or its agent to pay for the services of a “coordinator,” and for anyone to perform a “coordinating function” — collecting the competitively sensitive information of two or more owners and running it through an algorithm to set or recommend rents, material lease terms, or occupancy levels, or setting prices for two or more owners off the same model in a way that produces parallel pricing.

The carve-outs are worth knowing: research and testing that never feeds pricing, a public free rent estimate, and an MLS-style listing database available on equal terms that does not itself recommend prices or collect nonpublic data. Government affordability controls are excluded. A spreadsheet you analyze yourself, without AI, is expressly not an “algorithmic device.” The Act takes effect the first day of the twelfth month after enactment — July 1, 2027 — and the Attorney General must open a complaint intake channel.

Interpretation, not fact: the direction of travel is that who supplied the inputs matters more than whether software was used. A tool built on your own history plus published asking rents looks defensible under both documents; one whose edge is other owners’ signed-lease data does not. Expect vendors to market “public-data-only” configurations and compliance language to appear in management agreements before July 2027.

The misconception to drop

Many landlord write-ups treat this as “algorithmic rent pricing is now illegal.” It is not, in either document. The federal decrees bind named defendants only, and the target is nonpublic data sharing, not automation. The New Jersey statute is broader in who it covers but still turns on competitors’ nonpublic information and parallel coordination — not on using a calculator. The real risk for a small absentee owner is indirect: you hire a manager, the manager uses a tool, and the tool’s data source is something you never asked about.

A five-question checklist for your next manager call

1. What tool, if any, sets or recommends rent at my property — by name?
2. What data feeds it: my own property’s history and published asking rents, or other owners’ signed-lease and occupancy data?
3. Does my property’s leasing data leave your system and go into a pooled dataset?
4. Do you participate in call-arounds, market surveys, or user groups where nonpublic numbers get traded?
5. If I own in New Jersey, what changes in your process before July 1, 2027 — and will you put that in writing?

Get the answers in email. If your manager cannot name the tool or its data sources, that is itself the answer. For more on vetting managers and running a property from a distance, see our guides on how to hire a property management company, managing an out-of-state rental yourself, and whether out-of-state investing fits you. Our recent piece on what a FEMA flood-map change does to your rental covers another rule that reaches owners through third parties.

Primary sources: 91 FR 59304 (Pinnacle proposed Final Judgment and Competitive Impact Statement); DOJ Antitrust Division case page; New Jersey S451 (2R), FAIR Act text; Governor’s signing announcement, July 20, 2026.

This article is general educational information for rental property owners, not legal, tax, investment, or financial advice. Consent decrees bind only the parties named in them, statutes change, and state antitrust law varies. Consult a qualified attorney about your own properties and agreements before changing how you set rent.

Related: the federal energy standards for manufactured homes just stopped applying, and a July 2027 deadline replaced them.

On September 10, 2026, FEMA published three Changes in Flood Hazard Determinations notices in the Federal Register covering 52 separate map-revision cases in 21 states — from Huntsville, Alabama and Palm Bay, Florida to Hood River County, Oregon. The same day, a fourth notice made new maps final for Phillips County, Colorado and Hood River County, Oregon effective November 13, 2026.

If you own a rental two time zones away, this is news that never reaches you. Your tenant gets no letter; your city does not email you. The first signal is usually a notice from your loan servicer — and by then a 45-day clock is running. Here is what a map change actually does, and does not do, to an out-of-state rental.

What a map revision changes: the lender requirement, not your risk-based price

The federal mandatory-purchase rule lives in 42 U.S.C. 4012a(b). A regulated lender may not make, increase, extend, or renew a loan secured by improved real estate in a Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA) unless the building is covered by flood insurance for the term of the loan, in at least the lesser of the outstanding principal balance or the maximum NFIP limit. That test tracks the map in effect, so when a revision puts your building inside the SFHA, the requirement attaches to a loan you closed years ago.

Here is the part most landlord blogs get backwards: since Risk Rating 2.0 was fully implemented on April 1, 2023, your flood zone no longer sets your NFIP premium. FEMA’s own pricing page says the program now rates on flood frequency, flood type, distance to a water source, elevation and replacement cost — and that maps are retained for “mandatory purchase and floodplain management,” not for pricing (FEMA, NFIP’s Pricing Approach, last updated April 9, 2026).

Interpretation, not fact: for a leveraged rental, a map change is mostly a compliance event rather than a repricing event. The coverage was already priced to your property’s modeled risk; the map decides whether your lender can force you to buy it.

Two clocks that favor the owner who moves fast

1. The 1-day waiting period (13-month window). New NFIP policies normally take effect 30 days after application and payment. But under 44 CFR 61.11(a), during the 13-month period beginning on the effective date of a revised map, initial coverage becomes effective at 12:01 a.m. the day after you apply and pay. The October 2025 NFIP Flood Insurance Manual (section 2.III.B, “Map Revision Exception”) confirms the mechanics: the insurer must receive the application and full amount due within 13 months of the map revision date, or the 30-day wait returns.

2. The Newly Mapped discount (12 months, or 45 days from lender notice). Per the same manual (section 3.III.E.2, citing 42 U.S.C. 4015(i)), a building previously shown in Zone B, C, or X that is newly mapped into an SFHA may qualify for a reduced premium that phases out annually. Eligibility requires either a policy effective date within 12 months of the effective FIRM revision date, or application within 45 days of the initial lender notification where that notice came within 24 months of the revision. FEMA’s agent-facing guidance describes the benefit as a 70% discount applied to the first $35,000 of building coverage and first $10,000 of contents, phasing out with annual increases capped by statute (FEMA/NFIP for Agents). It does not apply on a community’s first-ever FIRM, and it is lost if the policy lapses.

Both clocks run from the map effective date, not the day you found out — which is the whole argument for tracking your own counties.

What happens if you ignore the notice

Under 42 U.S.C. 4012a(e), if the lender or servicer determines at any time during the loan term that the building is not covered, it must notify you that you should buy coverage. If you do not buy within 45 days, the servicer must purchase it for you and may charge you the premiums and fees — including for coverage backdated to the date your coverage lapsed or fell short. The statute does require the servicer to cancel force-placed coverage and refund overlapping premiums within 30 days of receiving proof of your own policy, so a late fix is still worth making.

The map can also move in your favor

Revisions cut both ways. A Letter of Map Revision can move a parcel out of the SFHA, which removes the federal purchase requirement (your lender may still require coverage as a matter of contract). If your building sits on natural high ground that the map does not reflect, the tool is a Letter of Map Amendment — and under 44 CFR 72.5(c), FEMA charges no review or processing fee for a LOMA request. You still pay a surveyor for the elevation data, which is the real cost.

One diligence note: the manual’s “New Policy After a Real Estate Transaction” rule lets a buyer keep a statutory discount the seller had, if the building was NFIP-insured with building coverage at transfer, is not condo-owned, and the new policy is effective within one year of the transaction. Ask for the seller’s policy number.

A checklist for absentee owners

1. Look up each property at the FEMA Map Service Center; record the FIRM panel and effective date, and re-check twice a year.
2. Watch Federal Register flood notices for your counties; the determination tables list each case number and date of modification.
3. If a revision puts you in an SFHA, apply and pay inside the 13-month window for next-day coverage, and inside 12 months for Newly Mapped pricing.
4. Never let a flood policy lapse on a newly mapped building — the discount does not come back.
5. Open the servicer envelope. The 45-day force-placement clock starts with that notice, not with your reply.
6. If your structure is above the base flood elevation, price a LOMA: no FEMA fee, surveyor cost only.
7. Require your property manager to forward insurance and municipal mail the same week it arrives — see our guide on hiring a property management company.

Two related pieces we published recently: the NFIP authorization deadline that moved to December 11, and HUD’s proposal to delete its two-foot flood elevation standard. If you are still weighing remote ownership, start with is out-of-state real estate investing for you and managing an out-of-state property yourself.

This article is educational information for property owners, not financial, insurance, tax, or legal advice. Flood insurance eligibility, discounts, and lender requirements depend on your specific property, map history, and loan documents. Verify your own situation with FEMA, your insurer, and your loan servicer before acting.

Related: who actually sets the rent on your out-of-state rental — and the new federal and New Jersey rules on pricing software.

If you rent to a Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8) tenant in a high-rent ZIP code, the ceiling on what the housing agency will pay may drop on October 1, 2026 — and HUD is offering agencies a cash bonus to do it.

The mechanism sits in a funding notice, not a headline: Notice PIH 2026-12, Revision 2 (issued June 9, 2026; originally May 6, 2026), which implements the Housing Choice Voucher funding provisions of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026 (P.L. 119-75). Here is what it says, and what it means if you own a rental two time zones away.

The fact: HUD created a $3,000 fee for agencies that stop using exception payment standards

A public housing agency (PHA) sets a payment standard — the maximum monthly subsidy — for each unit size. Under 24 CFR 982.503(c), the “basic range” is 90% to 110% of the published Fair Market Rent (FMR). Anything above 110% of FMR is an exception payment standard, allowed only under 982.503(d): up to 120% of FMR on notification to HUD if the agency has a low voucher success rate or high tenant rent burdens, higher only with HUD approval and market-rent data, or based on Small Area FMRs for a ZIP code.

Notice PIH 2026-12 adds a new administrative-fee category — Special Fee Category I, “PHA Exception Payment Standard Elimination” (section V.E.9 and Appendix L). An agency qualifies if it stopped using exception payment standards, including SAFMR-based exception standards and Moving to Work payment standards above the basic range, no later than October 1, 2026, across its entire tenant-based and project-based voucher programs. Reasonable-accommodation exception standards and HUD-VASH are excluded. The agency must apply through DocuSign by October 30, 2026, 5 p.m. local time, attaching its updated payment standard schedule and evidence of the official action taken. The award is $3,000.

Why would an agency take that deal? The notice reports CY 2026 appropriations of $34.557 billion for HAP renewal and a $400 million HAP set-aside, then states that “projected demand for shortfall funding in 2026 is significant” and that “most, if not all, of the HAP set-aside will likely be exhausted by the shortfall category.” Agencies in confirmed shortfall for the third time or more since 2016 are told to immediately cease exception and MTW payment standards above the basic range (Appendix B, Groups 2 and 3); those in shortfall six or more times must also review whether standards inside the basic range should come down. HUD’s 2026 Budget Management Letter to executive directors lists the same measures: cease issuing new vouchers, pause new project-based commitments, and “reduce payment standards, including ending the use of any approved exception payment standards.”

The protection most owners do not know they have — and its exception

A lower payment standard does not automatically cut the subsidy on your existing voucher tenancy. Under 24 CFR 982.505(c)(3), if a PHA chooses to reduce the payment standard used for a family already in place, the initial reduction “may not be applied any earlier than two years following the effective date of the decrease,” and only after the agency gives the family at least 12 months’ written notice stating the new amount. Later reductions are allowed, but never below the agency’s normally applicable schedule.

Two carve-outs matter. First, that delay does not apply to new admissions or families who move — for a new lease-up, the lower standard applies right away, per HUD’s cost-savings notice PIH 2025-28 (issued November 17, 2025). Second, PIH 2025-28 section V.3 states that the delayed applicability is “a regulatory, not statutory, requirement,” and that agencies working with HUD’s Shortfall Prevention Team may request a regulatory waiver for good cause to apply reductions immediately, with notice to the family under the agency’s Administrative Plan. PIH 2026-12 tells repeat-shortfall agencies to “strongly consider” exactly that waiver. Agencies can also ask HUD to approve payment standards below 90% of FMR under 982.503(e).

Interpretation, not fact: a $3,000 incentive plus an exhausted set-aside plus a waiver path around the two-year delay points to a slow squeeze on voucher rents in the higher-rent submarkets where exception standards existed. It does not mean your subsidy drops on October 1 — most in-place tenancies are protected unless your agency gets a waiver.

The timing overlap that will confuse people

FY2027 FMRs also take effect October 1, 2026, and agencies must update schedules within three months of an FMR’s effective date if needed to stay in the basic range (982.503(c)(3)). A schedule change this fall could reflect the new FMR, the end of an exception standard, or both — different decisions with different rules. See our breakdown of the FY2027 Fair Market Rents, and note that Moving to Work agencies operate under their own waivers.

A checklist for absentee owners with voucher tenants

1. Save your agency’s current payment standard schedule (usually posted on its website) with its effective date, before any October revision.
2. Ask one question in writing: “Is the payment standard for my unit’s ZIP code and bedroom size an exception payment standard above 110% of FMR, and is the agency eliminating it effective October 1, 2026?”
3. Ask the follow-up: “Has the agency requested, or does it plan to request, a waiver of 24 CFR 982.505(c)(3) to apply decreases immediately?” That answer decides whether your current tenancy is affected this year or in 2028.
4. Watch the vacancy math. A re-lease to a new voucher family is priced at the new standard. If you are deciding between renewing an in-place voucher tenant and turning the unit, the payment standard is now part of that calculation.
5. Do not assume rent reasonableness saves you. The agency also may not approve a rent above comparable unassisted market rents; the payment standard caps subsidy, it does not guarantee your asking rent.
6. Make sure agency mail reaches you. Notices go to the tenant, and often to an address that is not yours. Confirm your manager forwards agency correspondence (hiring a property manager) or build it into your own routine (self-managing remotely).
7. Stack this with the inspection calendar. Voucher units also face new NSPIRE inspection standards — budget for both in the same period. Weighing the trade-offs of remote ownership generally? See is out-of-state investing for you.

This article is educational information for rental property owners, not financial, tax, legal, or investment advice. Program rules vary by public housing agency and change frequently; verify anything that affects your property with the agency that administers your tenant’s voucher and with your own qualified advisors. Sources: HUD Notice PIH 2026-12 Rev. 2, HUD Notice PIH 2025-28, HUD 2026 Budget Management Letter, 24 CFR 982.503 and 982.505, and P.L. 119-75.

Related: FEMA redrew 52 flood maps in one day — what a map change actually does to your out-of-state rental.

If you own a rental in another state and you financed it with a conventional, FHA, VA or USDA loan, there is a federal eviction-notice rule sitting on top of your state’s landlord-tenant law. Most owners assume it died with the pandemic. It did not. What changed is that the agencies that used to remind you about it have stopped — and one of them tried to repeal its own version this year and had to put the repeal on hold.

The rule itself: 30 days after the notice to vacate

Section 4024(c) of the CARES Act, codified at 15 U.S.C. § 9058(c), says the lessor of a “covered dwelling” may not require the tenant to vacate before 30 days after the lessor gives the tenant a notice to vacate. The 120-day eviction-filing moratorium in the same section expired in July 2020. Subsection (c) has no expiration date in its text.

“Covered dwelling” is much broader than most landlords expect. Under § 9058(a), it includes any dwelling on a property with a federally backed mortgage loan — defined to include loans on 1-to-4-family residential property that are insured, guaranteed or assisted by a federal agency, or purchased or securitized by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. In plain terms: a single-family rental with an ordinary conforming loan Fannie or Freddie bought is very likely covered, as is a duplex with an FHA or VA loan, and units in federal rental-assistance programs.

Fact: most courts say it is still in force. One state’s high court disagrees

The Congressional Research Service’s September 2026 report on the requirement (CRS R48955) summarizes the case law bluntly: the notice-to-vacate requirement “remains in effect,” and most courts to consider it have held that it is not time-limited. Cited examples include Arvada Village Gardens LP v. Garate (Colo. 2023), Olentangy Commons Owner LLC v. Fawley (Ohio App. 2023) and Sherwood Auburn LLC v. Pinzon (Wash. App. 2022). Most courts have also read it to apply only to nonpayment-of-rent evictions, and to require the landlord to wait out the 30 days before filing the eviction case — not to run the clock alongside it.

The notable outlier is the Iowa Supreme Court in MIMG CLXXII Retreat on 6th, LLC v. Miller (Iowa 2025), which read subsection (c) together with the expired moratorium and limited it to tenants who fell behind during the 2020 moratorium window.

Interpretation, not fact: the rule functions as a tenant defense, not a compliance program. CRS notes no federal agency monitors or enforces it. You will not get a letter from Washington — you will get a case dismissed and have to refile, weeks later than planned.

What actually changed in the last 12 months

Three federal actions have made this rule less visible without making it go away:

• Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac stopped enforcing it. Fannie Mae retired Supplement 21-08 (“CARES Act Compliance with Law Notice”) on October 8, 2025, and Freddie Mac removed the related origination requirement from its guide. That means the paperwork prompt at closing is gone. The statute was not amended.
• USDA Rural Development rescinded its own 30-day requirement for Multi-Family Housing direct properties (91 FR 9135, February 25, 2026).
• HUD tried to revoke its version, then froze the revocation. On February 26, 2026, HUD published an interim final rule (91 FR 9449) revoking the 2021 interim rule and the 2024 final rule that required public housing agencies and project-based rental assistance owners to give 30 days’ notice before terminating a lease for nonpayment. It would have returned public housing to a 14-day nonpayment notice. After a lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on March 2, HUD used 91 FR 12301 (March 13, 2026) to delay the effective date indefinitely and to treat the revocation as a proposed rule pending a final rule. No final rule has been published in that docket as of September 16, 2026.

Consistent with that, the Code of Federal Regulations still carries the 30-day language: 24 CFR 966.4(l) (public housing lease addendum) and 24 CFR 247.4(c) (subsidized multifamily), both checked in the eCFR as of September 10, 2026.

The misconception worth correcting

The common version, repeated in landlord forums since last fall, is: “Fannie and Freddie dropped the CARES notice, so it’s over.” Enforcement ending is not repeal. The only thing that repeals a statute is Congress. A bill to do exactly that — the Respect State Housing Laws Act, H.R. 1078, which would strike § 4024(c) outright — was reported by the House Financial Services Committee on February 25, 2026 and placed on the Union Calendar. It has had no floor vote. Until it passes, § 9058(c) is still on the books, and a tenant’s lawyer can still raise it.

A practical checklist for an absentee owner

1. Determine, in writing, whether each property is “covered.” Check who owns or insures the loan — your servicer can tell you, and Fannie and Freddie both run public loan-lookup tools. Keep the answer in the property file.
2. Set your manager’s nonpayment template to 30 days where the property is covered, unless your state requires longer. Building the longer clock in costs nothing when it is unnecessary and saves a refiling when it is not.
3. Do not file the eviction until the 30 days have run. That sequencing is where most reported cases were lost.
4. Document delivery of the notice — date, method, copy retained. A 30-day defense usually turns on proof of when notice was given.
5. Ask your manager which rule they use. Managers who dropped the CARES step after October 2025 may be running a shorter clock than your property allows. See our guide to hiring a property management company for the questions to ask, and our walkthrough on managing an out-of-state property yourself if you handle notices directly.
6. If you rent to a voucher or project-based tenant, track the HUD docket — a final rule could change the public housing and PBRA baseline back to 14 days. Our posts on the 2027 Section 8 inspection changes and agency-specific MTW rules cover the other moving parts on the assisted-housing side.

New to remote ownership? Start with whether out-of-state investing fits you before the next purchase.

This article is educational and is not legal, tax, financial or investment advice. Eviction procedure is governed primarily by state and local law, federal requirements can change, and courts in different states have read CARES Act § 4024(c) differently. Confirm the rules that apply to your specific property and tenancy with a licensed attorney in that state before sending any termination notice.

Related: Section 8 payment standards could drop October 1 in some ZIP codes — and HUD is paying housing agencies $3,000 to cut them.

If you invest in rental property outside your home state, the Opportunity Zone map you looked at in 2019 is about to stop being the map that matters. Governors are nominating a brand-new set of census tracts right now, and the nomination window closes September 28, 2026 — with, at most, a 30-day extension to October 28. The tracts that survive the process become Qualified Opportunity Zones (QOZs) on January 1, 2027, and stay designated through December 31, 2036.

Here is what is actually happening, what it does and does not do for a small absentee owner, and the one misconception that costs people money.

The facts: a new ten-year designation cycle

The One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act (Public Law 119-21, section 70421) made the Opportunity Zone incentive permanent and put it on a ten-year redesignation cycle. The first “decennial determination date” was July 1, 2026.

Treasury and the IRS then issued Revenue Procedure 2026-14, which sets out the mechanics and identifies the eligible tracts. The numbers that matter:

• 25,332 census tracts nationwide qualify as low-income communities eligible for nomination, based on 2020–2024 American Community Survey data. 8,334 of them are entirely rural.
• Each state may have designated no more than 25% of its eligible tracts.
• Nominations are due by the end of the 90-day determination period — September 28, 2026, extendable on request to October 28.
• Treasury then has a 30-day consideration period to certify: November 27, 2026 at the earliest deadline, December 28 at the latest if extensions are used.
• The 2027 zones run January 1, 2027 through December 31, 2036.
• The 2018-era zones you may already know are not cancelled. Their ten-year clock ends December 31, 2028 (December 31, 2027 for Puerto Rico’s deemed-designated tracts).

The eligibility test also tightened. A tract now qualifies as a low-income community if its median family income is at or below 70% of the state or metro median (it was 80% under the 2017 law), or if it has a 20% poverty rate plus median family income at or below 125% of the state or metro benchmark. The old rule that let states nominate tracts merely contiguous to a low-income tract was repealed.

What changed for money invested after December 31, 2026

For amounts invested in a Qualified Opportunity Fund after December 31, 2026, section 70421 rewrote the benefit itself:

• Rolling five-year deferral. Deferred gain is included in income at the earlier of the date you sell the fund interest or five years after you invested — not a fixed 2026 cliff as under the old rules.
• 10% basis step-up at five years — 30% for an investment in a Qualified Rural Opportunity Fund.
• Ten-year exclusion, now capped at 30 years. On a qualifying ten-year hold, basis is stepped to fair market value at sale, or to value at the 30-year mark if you hold longer.
• Rural improvement break, already in effect. For zones comprised entirely of a rural area, the “substantial improvement” test is 50% of adjusted basis instead of 100%. Unlike the rest, this change took effect on enactment (July 4, 2025), not in 2027. “Rural area” means anything outside a city or town over 50,000 people and outside an urbanized area adjacent to one.

A second development landed on September 11, 2026: proposed regulations (REG-116506-25, 91 FR 57968) implementing the new information-reporting duties for funds under Code sections 6039K and 6039L, plus procedures for revoking an inadvertent fund self-certification. Comments close October 16, 2026; a telephonic hearing is scheduled for November 5. Penalties for a fund that fails to file run $500 per day, generally capped at $10,000 per return, with higher amounts for intentional disregard.

The misconception: “I bought in an Opportunity Zone, so I get the tax break”

This is the part most landlord forums get wrong. Buying a rental house located inside a designated tract, with ordinary cash, in your own name or your ordinary LLC, produces no Opportunity Zone benefit at all. The incentive is not a location discount. It requires, at minimum:

1. an eligible capital gain you are rolling over;
2. investment of that gain into a Qualified Opportunity Fund — a corporation or partnership that self-certifies and must hold at least 90% of its assets in qualified opportunity zone property; and
3. property that is either originally used in the zone by the fund or is substantially improved — generally spending more than the adjusted basis of the building (excluding land) within 30 months; 50% of basis in rural zones.

A turnkey rental you buy and rent as-is typically fails the third test outright. And for property acquired after December 31, 2026, the purchase must occur after the new zone’s January 1 start date to count as qualified opportunity zone business property for a 2027 zone.

Interpretation, not fact: for most mom-and-pop out-of-state investors, the realistic use of this regime is narrow — a heavy value-add rehab funded by a recent capital gain, structured through a fund, with a ten-year horizon and professional tax help. The rural 50% improvement test is the piece most likely to change the math on a small-town duplex.

What to actually do in the next two weeks

1. Check your target tracts against the Rev. Proc. 2026-14 appendix. Eligibility is published; designation is not, yet.
2. Watch for the designation list, which Treasury and the IRS said they expect to publish after nominations close and before January 1, 2027.
3. Do not pay a premium today for “future zone” status. Eligible is not designated, and states can only pick a quarter of their eligible tracts.
4. If you already own in a 2018 zone, note the December 31, 2028 expiration and confirm whether your tract is also on the 2027 eligible list.
5. If you are contemplating a fund, read the proposed reporting regs before you self-certify; the compliance load on a one-property fund is real.
6. Keep running the boring fundamentals. Zone status does not fix a bad market, a bad tenant, or absentee management. See our guides on whether out-of-state investing fits you, managing a property from a distance, and hiring a property manager.

This article is educational content for property owners and is not legal, tax, financial, or investment advice. Opportunity Zone rules are technical and fact-specific, and designations were still pending when this was written. Confirm the current status of any tract and consult a qualified tax professional before acting.

Related: The federal 30-day eviction notice did not expire — what changed in the last year.

If you are buying a newly built rental house out of state — or building one — there is a federal elevation rule sitting in the Code of Federal Regulations that your builder, your agent, and even some lenders will quote at you. It says the lowest floor has to be at least two feet above the base flood elevation. As of today, for FHA-insured single-family new construction, that requirement is not being enforced. And HUD has now proposed to erase it from the regulation entirely. The comment period on that proposal closed on September 8, 2026.

Here is what is actually in force, what is only proposed, and which of it touches an absentee owner.

The facts, in order

April 23, 2024. HUD published a final rule (89 FR 30850) that did two separate things. It created the Federal Flood Risk Management Standard (FFRMS) floodplain — a wider floodplain than FEMA’s 100-year map — for HUD-assisted and HUD-insured projects under 24 CFR part 55. And it rewrote HUD’s Minimum Property Standards at 24 CFR 200.926d(c)(4) so that new one-to-four-unit housing under FHA mortgage insurance had to sit two feet above the base flood elevation (BFE), documented by a signed Elevation Certificate.

February 21, 2025. After Executive Order 14148 revoked the executive order underpinning the FFRMS, HUD issued a temporary partial waiver of 200.926d(c)(4), dropping the “two feet above” requirement and restoring the prior standard: lowest floor at or above the BFE.

February 20, 2026. HUD extended that waiver, signed by the FHA Commissioner. Per FHA INFO 2026-03, the extension runs February 20, 2026 through February 19, 2027. HUD’s stated reason: the elevation standard “will limit the land available for development and increase the cost of construction for FHA insured properties.”

July 10, 2026. HUD published a proposed rule, Docket FR-6527-P-01 (91 FR 42685), to rescind most of the 2024 rule: no more climate-informed-science floodplain, back to the 1 percent annual chance floodplain (0.2 percent for critical actions), and the two-foot MPS language replaced with “at or above the base flood elevation.” HUD estimates $4.5 million to $85 million in annual construction-cost savings. Comments closed September 8, 2026. No final rule has been published as of September 14, 2026.

The misconception worth correcting

Two mistakes are common right now, and they point in opposite directions.

The first is reading the CFR and assuming the two-foot rule applies. It is still the printed text of 200.926d(c)(4) — a waiver does not delete regulatory language — but it is waived for FHA single-family new construction through February 19, 2027. If a builder is pricing an extra two feet of fill or stem wall into your new-construction purchase and citing HUD, ask which document they are relying on.

The second is assuming the rescission means flood risk paperwork goes away. It does not. Even under HUD’s own proposed text, a Direct Endorsement or Lender Insurance mortgagee financing new one-to-four-unit construction in the 1 percent annual chance floodplain must still obtain a final Letter of Map Amendment, a final Letter of Map Revision, or a signed Elevation Certificate showing the lowest floor is at or above the BFE. And none of this changes the statutory flood insurance purchase requirement for a federally backed mortgage on a property in a Special Flood Hazard Area (42 U.S.C. 4012a), or FEMA’s own local floodplain-construction rules at 44 CFR 60.3, which your city or county enforces regardless of what HUD does.

Interpretation, not fact: the practical effect of a rescission for a small out-of-state buyer is mostly about new construction supply and price in coastal and riverine markets, not about your own risk. The two-foot cushion was a resilience margin. Removing it lowers build cost; it does not lower the water.

Where this touches an existing rental you already own

Mostly it does not. The part 55 floodplain rules bite when there is federal money or federal insurance behind an action. If you buy with conventional financing or cash and do your own rehab, HUD’s floodplain process was never in your chain. Where it can appear:

• Substantial improvement of a HUD-assisted property. HUD notes that roughly 9.31% of the public housing portfolio and 7.1% of multifamily-assisted and -insured portfolios sit in the FFRMS floodplain, and that elevating garden-style buildings for substantial improvement is often impractical. If your rehab money comes through a HOME, CDBG, or HTF-funded program, the applicable floodplain definition is the one your grantee is operating under.
• FHA-financed new construction you buy as an investor-occupant or later assume. This is where the MPS and Elevation Certificate rules live.
• Appraisal and resale. A house built to BFE rather than BFE plus two feet is fully financeable, and may be cheaper to buy — and may cost more to insure.

A short checklist

1. On any new-construction contract in a flood zone, get the Elevation Certificate and read the lowest-floor elevation against the BFE. Do not accept “it meets HUD standards” as an answer.
2. Ask the local building department, not the builder, what the local freeboard requirement is. Many jurisdictions require one to three feet above BFE on their own authority, and that is unaffected by HUD’s waiver.
3. Quote flood insurance before removing your inspection contingency. Elevation drives the premium.
4. If federal grant money is anywhere in a rehab, ask the grantee in writing which floodplain determination applies while the rescission is pending.
5. Watch for the final rule. Until it publishes, the operative documents are the 2024 rule as modified by a waiver expiring February 19, 2027.

Related reading on remote ownership mechanics: managing a rental from another state, whether out-of-state investing fits your situation, and hiring a property management company.

This article is educational and general in nature. It is not legal, tax, insurance, lending, or investment advice, and it is not a substitute for reading the applicable regulation or consulting a licensed professional about your specific property. Rules change; verify dates and requirements against the primary sources linked above before acting.

Related: The Opportunity Zone map is being redrawn — nominations close September 28, new zones start January 1, 2027.